Mordechai Spiegler

Mordechai "Motaleh" Spiegler (Hebrew: מרדכי "מוטל'ה" שפיגלר; born 19 August 1944) is an Israeli retired football player and manager. A prolific forward, he is placed second in Israel's all time goalscoring list, with 32 goals in 83 caps.^[4]

Mordechai Spiegler
מרדכי שפיגלר

Spiegler in 1970
Personal information
Date of birth	(1944-08-19) 19 August 1944 (age 80)
Place of birth	Asbest, Russian SFSR, USSR
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1]
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1957–1961	Maccabi Netanya
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1961–1972	Maccabi Netanya	301	(196)
1972–1973	RC Paris	39	(11)
1973–1974	Paris Saint-Germain	13	(10)
1974–1975	Maccabi Netanya	26	(5)
1975	New York Cosmos	17	(6)
1975–1978	Maccabi Netanya	61	(11)
1978–1979	Hapoel Haifa	20	(1)
1981–1982	Beitar Tel Aviv (player-manager)	15	(2[2])
Total		492	(252)
International career
1963–1977	Israel	83	(32)
Managerial career
1979	Maccabi Haifa
1979–1980	Hapoel Haifa
1980–1982	Beitar Tel Aviv
1982–1984	Maccabi Netanya
1984	Hapoel Tel Aviv
1985	Maccabi Jaffa
1990–1992	Maccabi Netanya
1994–1996	Tzafririm Holon[3]
2013	Maccabi Netanya (general manager)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Early life

Mordechai Spiegler was born in Asbest, Soviet Russia, and is Jewish.^[1][5][6][7] He immigrated to Netanya, Israel, when he was a boy.^[8]

Club career

As a striker, he played for Maccabi Netanya along with Paris Saint Germain in France and alongside Pelé for New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League in the 1970s.^[9]

He was chosen as the Israeli Player of the Year a record four times, in 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, and in 1970–71.^[10]

International career

Israeli teammates (Spiegler in the middle) holding the 1964 AFC Asian Cup after beating South Korea in the final round

Spiegler made his international debut for Israel on 2 January 1964 against Hong Kong. He appeared in the Israeli win in the 1964 AFC Asian Cup, and scored two goals at the tournament, which made him a joint tournament top scorer.^[11]

His major achievement was helping Israel qualify for the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. He scored Israel's lone goal in World Cup history in a 1–1 draw against Sweden.^[12]

His 32 goals for the national team (according to IFA count, FIFA counts only 24 of them)^[5] was the Israeli record up until 2021 when he was surpassed by Eran Zahavi. Spiegler scored 24 goals in 62 'official' internationals for the Israel national side, he also played in 21 other 'unofficial' matches (mostly Olympic Games qualifiers) scoring eight more goals.

Spiegler captained the Israel Olympic team at Mexico City 1968 that reached the quarter-finals, losing to Bulgaria by a draw, 1–1.^[13]

Post-playing career

Spiegler was nominated as the best Israeli player of the prior 50 years by the Israel Football Association in the UEFA Jubilee Awards in November 2003.^[14] He is a member of the Education and Publicity Committee of the IFA.^[15]

In 2007, he won a lifetime contributions special award for the Israeli national team in the 1970 FIFA World Cup, determined by Yedioth Ahronoth and the Israeli football player association.^[16]

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League
		Division	Apps	Goals
Maccabi Netanya	1960–61	Liga Leumit	14	5
	1961–62		17	5
	1962–63	Liga Alef	28	23
	1963–64		22	24
	1964–65	Liga Leumit	27	16
	1965–66		30	17
	1966–68		54	38
	1968–69		25	26
	1969–70		30	12
	1970–71		30	13
	1971–72		24	17
	Total		301	196
Paris FC	1972–73	Division 1	39	11
Paris Saint-Germain	1973–74	Division 2	13	10
Maccabi Netanya	1974–75	Liga Leumit	26	5
New York Cosmos	1975	NASL	17	6
Maccabi Netanya	1975–76	Liga Leumit	32	5
	1976–77		26	5
	1977–78		3	1
	Total		61	11
Hapoel Haifa	1978–79	Liga Leumit	20	1
Beitar Tel Aviv	1981–82	Liga Leumit	15	2
Career total			492	242

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Israel	1963	1	0
	1964	8	4
	1965	5	0
	1966	8	4
	1967	1	0
	1968	14	15
	1969	10	3
	1970	8	3
	1971	5	1
	1972	6	1
	1973	6	1
	1974	0	0
	1975	0	0
	1976	3	0
	1977	8	0
Total		83	32

Scores and results list Israel's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Spiegler goal.^[17]

List of international goals scored by Mordechai Spiegler

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	2 January 1964	Government Stadium, Wan Chai, Hong Kong	Hong Kong	3–0	Win	Friendly
2	26 May 1964	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan, Israel		1–0	Win	1964 AFC Asian Cup
3	29 May 1964	Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel	India	2–0	Win
4	28 November 1964		Yugoslavia	2–0	Win	Friendly
5	6 April 1966		Finland	7–1	Win
6
7	15 June 1966	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan, Israel	Uruguay	1–2	Loss
8	12 October 1966	Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel	Yugoslavia	1–3	Loss
9	14 February 1968		Switzerland	2–1	Win
10
11	17 March 1968		Ceylon	7–0	Win	1968 Summer Olympics qualification
12
13
14	12 May 1968	Amjadieh Stadium, Tehran, Iran	Hong Kong	6–1	Win	1968 AFC Asian Cup
15
16	10 September 1968	Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel	Northern Ireland	2–3	Loss	Friendly
17	15 September 1968	Yankee Stadium New York City, United States	United States	3–3	Draw
18
19	25 September 1968	Temple Stadium, Philadelphia, United States		4–0	Win
20
21
22
23	15 October 1968	Estadio Nou Camp, León, Guanajuato, Mexico	El Salvador	3–1	Win	1968 Summer Olympics
24	28 September 1969	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan, Israel	New Zealand	2–0	Win	1970 FIFA World Cup qualification
25	1 October 1969			4–0	Win
26	14 December 1969	Sydney Sports Ground, Sydney, Australia	Australia	1–1	Draw
27	22 March 1970	Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Ethiopia	5–1	Win	Friendly
28
29	7 June 1970	Estadio Luis Dosal, Toluca, Mexico	Sweden	1–1	Draw	1970 FIFA World Cup
30	11 November 1971	Lang Park, Brisbane, Australia	Australia	2–2	Draw	Friendly
31	28 March 1972	Bogyoke Aung San Stadium, Yangon, Burma	India	1–0	Win	1972 Summer Olympics qualification
32	21 May 1973	Seoul, South Korea	Thailand	6–0	Win	1974 FIFA World Cup qualification

Managerial statistics

Team	Nat.	From	To	Record
				M	W	D	L	Win %
Maccabi Haifa		1979	1979	3	0	0	3	000.00
Hapoel Haifa		1979	1980	30	8	11	11	026.67
Beitar Tel Aviv		1980	1982	65	28	21	16	043.08
Maccabi Netanya		1982	1984	80	44	17	19	055.00
Hapoel Tel Aviv		1984	1984	8	1	3	4	012.50
Maccabi Jaffa		1985	1985	12	5	5	2	041.67
Maccabi Netanya		1990	1992	86	27	26	33	031.40
Tzafririm Holon		1994	1996	55	19	9	27	034.55
Total				339	132	92	115	038.94

Honours

Player

Maccabi Netanya

• Israeli Premier League: 1970–71, 1977–78
• Israel State Cup: 1977–78
• Israeli Supercup: 1971, 1978

Israel

• AFC Youth Championship: 1964^[18]
• AFC Asian Cup: 1964

Individual

• Israeli Premier League top goalscorer: 1965–66, 1966–68, 1968–69
• Israeli Player of the Year: 1965–66, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71
• Member of the Israeli Football Hall of Fame

Manager

Beitar Tel Aviv

• Second Division:1980–81

Maccabi Netanya

• Israeli Premier League: 1982–83
• Israeli Supercup: 1983
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1983, 1984
• League Cup: 1982, 1983

See also

• List of Ligue 1 hat-tricks
• List of Jews in sports